pinkshinyultrablast Everything Else Matters (CD, £11.50)

label: Club AC30

Pinkshinyultrablast, a five-piece band from St. Petersburg in Russia, release their debut album.
Hailing from a city more synonymous with the State Conservatory rather than a gang of shoegaze addicts, they've been compared to Lush. But this is no mere
throwback tribute – due to their sharp, icy electronics and ability to subvert the genre, bringing something new to the table. They possess not only the spirit of
late 80s/early 90s British bands like Ride, but also machine-made sounds of the same era from Sabres Of Paradise or Global Communication, not to mention
wider vibrations like Cluster, Popol Vuh, Terry Riley and Philip Glass. This is an album brimming with playful melody and finely-crafted songwriting. Imagine the
scope of a Caribou record, fronted by Elizabeth Fraser soundtracking a grizzly Raskolnikov crime. The band take their name from an Astrobrite album, an act who
were, according to the band, instrumental in how they "researched spaces between ambient, heavy guitar and pop music". The spaces are what stand out, the
production creates a dream-like affair, while space to breathe and reflect on the beauty of the music is accommodated. There is a sparseness to the album that
in turn gives spaciousness, even expansiveness.